LEC Powers Up Virtual Arkansas

- LEC’s Online & Blended Teacher Selected for Statewide Teacher Training - WALNUT CREEK, CA (June 29, 2015) – Leading Edge Certification (LEC) - a national provider of certification programs in education technology – announced today at ISTE 2015 that another round of LEC teacher training at Virtual Arkansas will soon be underway. Virtual Arkansas is a statewide virtual school implemented through a partnership with the Arkansas Department of Education and the Arkansas Education Service Cooperatives. Leading Edge Certification’s Online and Blended Teacher Certification will be delivered by LEC Core Alliance Member Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership (TICAL), which has over a decade of experience working with the Arkansas Department of Education through TICAL’s ed tech and leadership trainings.

“TICAL is thrilled to bring the LEC Online & Blended Teacher Certification to Virtual Arkansas for a second year in a row,” said Rowland Baker, TICAL Executive Director. “We’re especially excited about continuing our work with Virtual Arkansas to bring anunderstanding of how to use technology in a collaborative learning online environment to better understand online learning pedagogy, which are hallmarks of LEC’s Online & Blended Learning Certification curriculum.”

Arkansas’ Digital Learning Act (Act 1280) is also an important factor in considering the professional development solutions for teachers at Virtual Arkansas. LEC Online & Blended Teacher Certification was a required training for Virtual Arkansas teachers last year, partly in response to the Digital Learning Act. “We chose to work with TICAL to help us in our mission to develop the full potential of Arkansas students by providing access to quality online courses that incorporate interactive instruction to prepare students to be successful in their college and career educational pursuits and in the global economy,” said Cathi Swan, State Coordinator of Digital Learning and Superintendent, Virtual Arkansas. “Preparing our teachers with the LEC Online & Blended Teacher Certification in turn helps us to prepare our students for this success.” A cohort from Virtual Arkansas is expected to form later this summer for LEC’s Online & Blended Teacher program.

Part of the need for a second round of LEC training is due to the rapid expansion of the Virtual Arkansas program. Within the last academic school year, enrollment in the state-wide program has ballooned from 12,000 students to 30,000 students. This expansion continues as Virtual Arkansas sets its sights on identifying future trainers of teachers and on the expansion of blended learning training for teachers in a traditional classroom setting.

Looking ahead in 2016, Leading Edge Certification will again be partnering with Virtual Arkansas to bring the LEC Online & Blended Teacher Certification to districts across the state. The focus of this next phase of training will be those educators who are not members of Virtual Arkansas who are teaching a blended or online course - whether in private, public or charter schools.

Virtual Arkansas will provide local support and mentorship to these district teachers as part of a training and outreach program.

To find out more about Leading Edge Certification, its current certifications offerings, or to inquire about starting a certification cohort, visit www.leadingedgecertification.org. For information about Virtual Arkansas, and their work with students and educators across the state of Arkansas, visit http://virtualarkansas.org/.

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About Virtual Arkansas

We are an Arkansas-based program that is implemented through a partnership between the Arkansas Department of Education and the Arkansas Education Service Cooperatives. We provide an array of quality digital courses to public school students in Arkansas and utilize Arkansas licensed instructors. Virtual Arkansas serves approximately 200 districts and over 30,000 student registrations. We are not an online high school or a diploma-granting institution but are a resource for supplementing education for public school students. Students who are enrolled in a public school may be enrolled in Virtual Arkansas courses by the local school administration.

About Leading Edge Certification

Leading Edge Certification (LEC) is a national certification program in educational technology and curriculum innovation. Created by an Alliance of nonprofits, universities and educational agencies, LEC is the first national certification program of its kind, and is platform and vendor neutral. LEC for the Online and Blended Teacher, LEC for the Administrator, LEC for the Digital Educator and LEC for the Professional Learning Leader are currently available. Visit www.leadingedgecertification.org to find out more.